The AZJP (AZ Jan Portaels) has an ombudsman service that operates independently and neutrally. The Ombudsman service handles all complaints about the services provided by AZ Jan Portaels, as outlined in the Patient Rights Act (2002). In addition to handling complaints, you can also contact the Ombudsman service to report a (medical) incident and to obtain information about your rights and responsibilities as a patient.

Legal mandate of the ombudsman service (Law, August 22, 2002, article 11):

  • The ombudsman's primary task is to promote communication between the patient and the healthcare provider through preventive actions to prevent complaints.

  • If a patient files a complaint with a competent ombudsman service, claiming that one of their rights was not respected (e.g., lack of information about their health, difficult access to the patient record, inadequate quality of care), mediation attempts to resolve the disagreement with the cooperation of the patient and the healthcare provider.

  • If the parties do not reach a resolution, the ombudsman informs the complainant about other existing options to address their request.

  • In addition to disseminating information about its own organization, the ombudsman function makes recommendations in its annual report to avoid the recurrence of certain dissatisfactions related to patient rights.

How and who handles and processes incidents, complaints is clarified in the internal regulations, which you can find here.

Before contacting the Ombudsman service, it is important to first try to discuss the problem with the relevant person or department. If you do not achieve the desired result or find it very difficult to have this conversation yourself, you can turn to the Ombudsman service. The ombudsman will listen to your story, provide information, and try to mediate between the parties involved. Complaints/questions about billing, lost items, damages, and similar issues (see above) are only handled by the Ombudsman service in the second line. This means if the relevant services and responsible persons were initially approached, but you are dissatisfied with the complaint handling.

 

Ombudsperson Vanessa De Greef